By Andrew Hayley
BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese national oil and gas company CNOOC Ltd on Thursday posted a 11.3% fall in first-half profit as lower realised oil prices squeezed margins despite higher output.
Net profit fell to 63.8 billion yuan ($8.76 billion) from 71.9 billion a year earlier, CNOOC said in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Global oil prices have fallen significantly since last year, having spiked in the immediate aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The company’s reported realised oil price for the period was down 29% on last year，a concurrent filing with the Shanghai Stock Exchange showed.
The listed arm of state-backed CNOOC Group reported a 5.1% year-on-year fall in revenue to 192.1 billion yuan.
An upstream player, CNOOC’s total net production rose 8.9% to 331.8 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe).
Domestic output increased by 6.6% while output from international operations in countries such as Indonesia, Brazil and Guyana increased by 14.4%.
Domestic production accounted for 69.7% of total output, down from last year.
The company has set a production target of a record 650 million to 660 million boe in 2023, as part of its medium-term goal of a 6% increase in average annual production by 2025.
Retaining its status as one of the world’s most cost-efficient producers, all-in production costs for the first half were $28.2 per barrel, down 7.1% on the same period last year.
Capex stood at 56.5 billion yuan, up 36% from last year.
In March the company said it planned to increase capex to 100 billion-110 billion yuan for 2023 from 100 billion yuan last year as it targets further development of nine projects and a reserve replacement ratio of greater than 130%.
($1 = 7.2853 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Andrew Hayley; Editing by Jason Neely and Mark Porter)
